The Gulf Sky
Five Views of How Beautiful Emptiness Can Be
Fran and I are on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico this week. We have a friend who has a place here and graciously invites us to spend a week here each year. For us, it’s not just a vacation, it’s an informal retreat, indeed a reset — a week with very little to do, other than walk on the beach, reflect on beauty, cultivate a sense of gratitude, and consider the blessings of the year to come.
Over the years that we’ve been coming to the Gulf Coast, I’ve learned to truly love the expanse of the water and the sky. This year I decided to take a series of pictures to try to capture just how dynamic the supposedly-empty sky really is. Here are five such images. These are amateur photos, taken with an iPhone 12 — nothing fancy. So please forgive the lack of technical skill. I hope you’ll enjoy the heart of these images, simple though they may be.
Remember that the Buddhists have an image of the “sky of mind” as a metaphor for a mature and stable meditation practice. Maybe these images can help each of us as we seek our own sky of mind.
From top to bottom: the Gulf Coast of Florida, Seagrove Beach — before sunset, just after sunset, mid morning, early afternoon, and just before sunset, June 12-13, 2026.
The sky is dynamic and ever changing. So is the mind. Yet even in all its activity and drama, the sky remains a chalice for divine love and silence. Our hearts and minds are no less.
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